Afghan civil servants to be trained in India

New Delhi, Nov 21: Afghan civil servants will now be trained at the Jindal University at Sonepat in Haryana.

The university will welcome the first batch of senior Afghan civil servants in the next few months, it said in a statement.

These civil servants hold the ranks of director general to deputy directors in various Afghan government ministries.

"These civil servants will be trained ... in topics like leadership, human resource management, law and justice, organisational change, good governance and post-conflict institution building," it said.

Ashraf Haidari, deputy chief of mission of the Afghan embassy here, was quoted as saying that the current focus in Kabul was to strengthen civilian institutions.

He said: "Although the international community has invested in reconstruction of Afghanistan, it has concentrated mostly on the military and security sectors.

"Not enough has not been done to build the civilian state structures, which are essential for a sustainable transition towards self-reliance and peace."

Haidari added: "With India, there is a cultural affinity. In India too there are problems, but there are also institutions that have succeeded. India is a democracy that learns from its mistakes and we want to learn from that."